After an emotional hug with close friend Martin Vassallo Arguello, Luis Horna collected the crystal trophy - his prize for dispatching all before him with his powerhouse tactics, writes Dan Rutstein.

Tournament organisers were delighted with the XL Open finale, an absorbing three-set affair, but will also have been pleased with the Peruvian winner's words.

“This is one of the best tournaments we play in, Bermuda is such a beautiful place,” Horna articulated on the microphone to the 1,450 spectators who had just sat down again after the standing ovation for the 113-minute final.

“Everyone one looks forward to playing here. And I will definitely be back.”

The 23-year-old, whose angry outbursts appear to be an integral part of his game, also thanked all of the sponsors and the tournament organisers in a near-perfect post-victory address.

From the flawless manner with which he delivered his speech, one could get the sense that ‘he says that to all the crowds' - but you get the impression that this time he meant it.

And his love of Bermuda, one that is shared by many of the players, was also reiterated by Association of Tennis Professionals tournament supervisor Ed Hardisty - a man who has worked at more than 400 tournaments in his 21 years as a match official.

“The facilities at the clubhouse are absolutely magnificent, there are few places which offer such a spectacular setting and such good food on the Tour for the players,” said Hardisty, who fell into officiating after working as a linesman at a tournament in Hong Kong before working his way up to umpire, then referee, then full-time supervisor.

“This is regarded as one of the best tournaments in its category because of the venue. I think a lot of the players like coming here and it can be a beautiful place when the weather is like this (undiluted sunshine).

“The organisers are very open and very amenable here and the tournament office is run well.

“The ground staff do a fabulous job on the courts and Kevin (Winter), who has been doing this for years, has the operations team running like a Swiss timepiece.”

But Hardisty, who has worked as a supervisor at the Grand Slams, admitted that when the weather fails, that is where the “only negative I can find with this place” kicks in.

“When it rains here, it can be a bit of a headache,” continued the 64-year-old, on his third visit here.

“Obviously rain is a problem with tennis tournaments everywhere, but more so here. The far end (north) of the centre court is notoriously slow draining.

“But other than that this is a favourite stop for everyone.”

Fortunately for the capacity crowd on Sunday, the morning downpour was brief enough that centre court flooding was not an issue, as the delay was kept down to just 45 minutes.

This did cut short the Legends game, which was shaping up to be a classic courtesy of all the usual shenanigans from the four international stars that graced the court, but the two long finals more than made up for it.

The XLOpen began ten days ago with desperate qualifers ranked outside the top 300 - and in Bermudian James Collieson's case, off the scale - trying to earn a place in the $100,000 Challenger tournament's main draw and ended on Sunday with the Peruvian world number 59 taking the spoils.

Courtesy of some epic three-setters, at least two of which went down to a final set tie-break, some racquet throwing, some Scandinavian cursing and six days of bright sunshine, the XL Open proved to be an enjoyable and entertaining week - even if the rumoured appearance of Russian goddess Anna Kournikova did turn out to be nonsense.